Revenge is Sweet
by Neverendingimagination
Summary: Sometimes the person you least suspect is the most obvious. Jethro Gibbs world is rocked when he receives new that Director Jenny Shepard has dissappeared.
1. No Answer

Author's note : None of the NCIS characters are mine, I have borrowed them for this fic

**Author's note : None of the NCIS characters are mine, I have borrowed them for this fic. I am not 100 percent sure **

**exactly what the content will include so I have selected rating T to be safe.**

This is my first attempt at an NCIS fic and you have murrinholi to crucify/thank for this.

* * *

Please review; any tips on characterisation and sounding American are greatly appreciated.

_He looked up at her as the French police cuffed him, half shocked by her abrupt reaction half urging her to go faster. She pulled her _

_dark glasses from her shoulder bag and slipped them on, balancing them on her nose. She shook her hair as she turned silently _

_away and walked into the distance, her white shirt flowing around her toned figure and resting on the dark denim of her shorts. That_

_ was the last he saw of her, her long tanned legs disappearing in the sea of legs and sandals belonging to the many tourists and  
_

_locals as he was forced down the road. _

The man leans behind her and pulls the chair out from the table; he smiles at her as he leads her to the chair and brushes his

hand along her shoulder. She turns towards his touch and follows him with her eyes as he takes the seat opposite her. He

leans towards her stroking her hand as he flicks his hair away from his eyes coolly, he smiles at her again showing off his

pearly white teeth. She grins awkwardly and turns her head blushing slightly, tucking her hair behind her ears nervously. Her

eyes subtly watching his every move and returning to his sky blue eyes.

She looks up as the waiter arrives with their menus and thanks him before looking down the list of starters. He looks over his

menu and watches her as she focuses on the cream card and golden lettering. Her eyes flick up to meet his and a smile plays

around her mouth as they stared into one another's eyes. He lays his menu on the table and places both hands on the table,

she follows suit and leans towards him watching him eagerly. 'What are you thinking?' He lifts her hand to his lips and kisses it

tenderly, 'I'm not so hungry anymore.' Her whole face lights up, her eyes shine and her smile stretches broadly across her face

as she stands up and pulls him to his feet.

It is late and pitch-dark outside except for the golden glow of the porch lights. There is a knock at the door and the Mexican

woman hurries across the tiled floor to answer it. She pulls the door ajar and peers out, 'I'm looking for Director Shepard,' a

man asks, he is dressed in dark clothes and is wearing a hat casting shadows across his face. 'She's not here at the moment

senor, can I take a message?' she asks cautiously, 'Yeah you can take a message,' he replies casually placing his foot

between the door and its frame. He raises his hand and pushes the door open grabbing her and forcing her inside.

He closes the door behind them and pulls a gun from his pocket, he cocks it and points it towards the frightened woman, and

he gestures for her to move across the hall. She backs into the wall and side steps towards the doorway, her breathing loud

and erratic. He motions towards the far wall of the room and she slowly backs away from him, her eyes wide with fear never

leaving him for a moment.

Agent Jethro Gibbs stands watching the dock from inside NCIS headquarters sipping coffee from the paper cup in his hand. He

looks up as the elevator doors open and his cocky senior field agent steps out. 'Hey boss,' he calls swinging his rucksack onto

his desk. 'Morning DiNozzo,' he mutters staring out of the glass trying to work out what has gotten his 'gut' so worked up this

morning. He drains the last of his coffee and throws the cup in the trash. He walks towards his desk and passes Ziva studying

her computer screen with her shades perched on top of her head.

His phone rings with the usual shrill tone and he leans over his desk to grab it, 'Gibbs,' he says shortly, 'Special Agent Gibbs

the Director wants to…,' he puts the phone down and walks quickly towards the stairs. He hurries up the stairs two at a time

and disappears around the corner. Tony jumps up from his seat, 'Hey Ziva,' 'Tony,' she replies still interested in her computer

screen. 'Watcha lookin' at?' 'News bulletins, it helps me keep one jump ahead of the frog,' 'it's one step ahead of the game

Ziva, one step ahead of the game.'

Gibbs marches into the small office and slows to look over at Cynthia before he pushes open the doors to the director's office.

He steps inside and stops before the desk, he looks around and turns to the door as Cynthia closes it behind her. 'What's

going on, where's the director?' Cynthia looks at him worriedly, 'she didn't come in this morning, there's no answer on her

home number or cell phone, she had an appointment twenty minutes ago, and it's not like her to be late.' Gibbs nodded, 'who

else knows?' 'just you and me, I didn't wanna cause a panic if she had a flat tyre or something,' 'leave it to me.'

He heads down the stairs finding Tony and Ziva debating the finer points of making it as a news reader, 'come on, you gotta

look the part, you gotta have the looks and the figure to present the news,' 'so having a clear voice and sense or

professionalism doesn't matter as long as you have long legs and pout?' Tony pulls a face as Gibbs appears behind him, 'I

mean you could hardly see the boss reading the news but the director, now that's another story.' Tony stops talking and

freezes, 'he's behind me isn't he?'

Gibbs walks around the desk and whacks Tony around the back of the head, 'what have I told you about objectifying women

DiNozzo?' 'I er I er, what have we got boss?' 'McGee, I want you to check the traffic footage from Elm street last night,

anything suspicious I wanna know about it, Tony, Ziva, quit it, I wanna know the owner and location of every vehicle on that

street between 2300 and 0500 this morning, you got that, you find anything you call me.' He stalks away from the team and

heads towards the elevator, slamming the button for the forensics level.

Abby was bouncing around her lap to Zombie warriors when Gibbs appears behind her, 'Abs!' She turns the music down and

grins leaping towards him, 'Hey Gibbs,' she notices the concern on his face and hugs him, 'what's wrong Gibbs?' 'I need you to

pull up the directors cell phone records, I wanna know who's been calling her over the last few weeks and if anyone called her

last night.' 'Sure Gibbs what's going on?' She asked typing on her computer; she turns around to find Gibbs has gone.

Gibbs returns to his team and grabs his badge and gun from his desk, they all watch him waiting for his signal, 'you got

anything McGee?' 'A dark suv pulls up at 11.21 and stays until 11.44, its too dark to see the whole plate,' he looks up and

finds the famous Gibbs stare aimed directly at him, 'but I got the first four digits, 681 – v,' 'I want a BOLO out on it,' 'for what?'

'anything, just find it,' he storms away from the desk and stops for a second, 'DiNozzo, Ziva with me.'

They look up at the directors house and noticing the front door is slightly open Gibbs pulls out his gun slowly, 'Tony, Ziva,

round the back,' Tony and Ziva slip around the side of the building holding their weapons and checking around the corners as

they go. Gibbs positions himself by the front door before kicking the it open and heading inside. 'Clear,' he calls as he checks

the cloakroom, other shouts of 'clear' can be heard as Tony and Ziva enter the kitchen.

Tony enters the large dining room and Gibbs gestures upstairs, Ziva nods and cautiously heads up the stairs. 'Boss you should

see this,' Tony calls as he looks inside the dining room and sees the ghostly legs beside the table following them up to the

ghostly face of the housekeeper. 'Someone's trashed the study, there are papers everywhere,' Gibbs calls from the next room.

Now he knew what his gut had been telling him, Jenny was in trouble.

I just don't know what to do with myself

I don't want to admit what my gut's telling me

If I ignore my head and follow my heart

Maybe there's a chance

If I believe my heart I know that you

Are out there somewhere waiting for m

To find you and bring you home into my arms

Baby there's a chance


	2. Crime Scene 1

**Once again the main characters are not mine I have borrowed them. **

Thanks for the reviews.

* * *

'Clear up stairs,' Ziva calls staring into the bedroom in amazement, she look at the cream fluffy cushions on the bed and her

eyes spot the picture frame on the chest of drawers

'Clear up stairs,' Ziva calls staring into the bedroom in amazement, she look at the cream fluffy cushions on the bed and her

eyes spot the picture frame on the chest of drawers. She is drawn to the figures smiling, embracing one another lovingly; they

had made a good partnership in more ways than one. She leaves the room and heads back downstairs to join Gibbs and Tony.

'Call McGee, we need this scene processed,' Gibbs growls his eyes darting around the room, Ziva nods and turns to make the

call.

As Gibbs stares around the room he realises how little had changed since he had set foot in this room nearly nine years

before. The same furniture, same décor, same flowers in fact, only difference was the dead body sprawled in front of him, it

ruined the images in his head somewhat. He sighs and turns as Ziva appears behind him, 'he is on his way with Ducky and

Palmer,' Jethro nods, he is itching to get out there and look for Jenny but until this evidence was processed he had no idea

where to look. He spends the following fifteen minutes staring at the body and out into the garden sighing and trying to work

out what was going on.

'Finally,' he growls as hears Ducky and Palmer's voices approaching, 'what took ya so long Duck?' 'I am only human Jethro, and

this human got stuck in the mid-morning traffic, now what have we got here?' He carefully steps around the body and kneels

down to examine her, he inserts the liver probe and looks at her arms, 'hmmm, hmmm,' 'hmmm,' Gibbs replies looking at the

body mockingly, Ducky looks up at him and purses his lips, something was bothering Jethro about this case, he was never

usually so impatient. Well, he was impatient but he always let him do his job, this was out of character, he would let it go, for

now.

'There appears to be blunt force trauma to the back of the head, minor lacerations to the lower arms,' 'defensive wounds?'

Gibbs asks, 'yes I would think so, there are also bruises on both her wrists which appear to be fingertip bruising, this woman

struggled before her untimely demise,' the team look at each other concernedly, Gibbs keeps focused on the job at hand, 'time

of death?' 'this poor woman has been dead for approximately seven hours,' Gibbs looks up, 'that fits with the period the suv

was outside, McGee!' He shouts stomping into the entrance hall in search of the probie agent, 'Boss,' he hears from the study

and looks inside the room.

His eyes narrowing as he takes in the full extent of the damage, 'You get anything from that Bono yet?' 'No, but er whoever

came in here knew what they were looking for, we've been putting the papers into chronological order and all the papers for

2000 and every summer since are missing.' Gibbs bellows at the doorway, 'DiNozzo, Ziva get in here,' both agents appear,

alert and confident. 'I want all this back at the lab, I wanna know what was on those papers McGee, I wanna know where

that car is and,' he looks directly at Ziva, 'I wan…' he is cut short by his cell phone ringing, he glares at it and flips it open,

'Gibbs,' 'Gibbs, I got something,' 'on my way Abby,' he slides the phone back into his pocket, he looks back at Ziva, 'I wanna

know about anyone who could be behind this,' she nods their eyes passing messages that did not need to be spoken. He

knew Ziva's 'sources' were Jenny and a few select others, but mainly Jenny.

Abby jumps as she hears the doors opening and starts tapping ferociously on the keyboard, 'I checked her cell phone records

and found that a new number appeared a few months ago, I ran a check on the number and it's an anonymous prepay cell,'

she falters seeing the look on Gibbs face as he hears bad news. 'But,' she grins, 'I checked the outgoing calls and found this,'

she highlights one of the numbers, 'it's the booking line for the Hashnav Hotel on 32nd, reservations were made for last night,'

Gibbs leans forwards and kisses Abby on the cheek, 'Good work Abs,' he presents her with a Caf Pow from behind his back

and takes the slip of paper with the hotel address and room number.

He walks into the lobby and strides up to the desk, he holds up a photo of Jenny, flashing his ID card so that only the clerk

would see. 'Have you seen this woman?' the clerk shakes her head, 'no, but I only started at eight, Bobby 's been here since

nine last night, Bobby!' A woman with curly hair looks up from the other side of the desk, 'c'mere,' she walks slowly towards

them, her arms folded, 'have you seen this woman,' she looks at it for a moment, 'yeah, she was here last night,' 'was she

with anyone?' 'yeah, a guy,' 'description?' 'tuxedo, dark hair, going grey,' 'anything else you can remember about him?' 'No, oh

he had an accent, couldn't place it.' He nods slightly and asks for the key to room 337, she nods and passes him the key, 'have

the occupants checked out?' 'No, is there anything else I can help with?' 'No,' he nods noticing her long red hair and slender

frame before striding towards the elevator. He presses the button for level 3 and waits anxiously for the doors to open. He

steps out and looks at the room numbers following them along the corridor, he spots 333 and knows he is close.

As he reaches the door he sees it is slightly ajar, his instincts kick in and he pulls his gun from its holster and positions it close

to him level with his shoulder. He peers into the room before kicking the door fully open, his face falls as he sees what is on

the bed, he begins to sweat uncontrollably and feels his breathing become ragged. He regains his composure and carefully

walks around the room to the bathroom, he pushes the door open and finding it empty lowers his gun. He turns to look back

at the bed, his face contorted with pain and anguish; rust coloured patches smeared the carpet and cream bedspread, leading

back to a central point on the bed. So much blood, he leaned forwards to look at the velvet soft dress slashed across the bust

and stomach, blood pooled around the gashes and immediately felt sick. His eyes travelled to the shawl on the floor and the

bloody handprint, the smears on the chest of drawers and over the phone hanging from its stand.

If I could turn back time, if I could undo the past

You'd never feel that pain

If I could turn back that clock, and stop you from leaving

I'd never feel this pain

You'd know what you do to me; you'd know how I feel

You'd never see how much this is killing me

I'm breaking up inside

I need to hear your voice, see your eyes staring back at me

Telling me it's just a nightmare

I wish I could undo the past, and stop you from leaving

I'd hold you in my arms one last time

I'd stop you from feeling this pain, if only I could

Turn back the clock

* * *

Author's note: I have changed the time since Jethro has been in Jenny's dining room - thanks for setting me straight elflordsmistress


	3. Evidence and Exploration

Part 3

Part 3

DiNozzo and Ziva falter as they enter the room kitted out in NCIS overalls and caps, they breathe deeply before placing the crime scene kits on the floor. McGee stares around the room his eyes resting on the blood, he gulps and fights to stay in control as he lifts the camera and clicks the shutter. He is shaking as he moves to take a second photo, no other crime scene had meant as much as this. He feels a hand on his shoulder and sees Tony beside him, 'good job probie,' he nods and turns to continue his work. That small gesture from his senior made all the difference; he lifts the camera and snaps the crime scene from all angles, making sure nothing is missed.

Gibbs kneels on the floor beside the shawl and sniffs the faint aroma distinguishable from the blood, her smell. He looks over at Ziva and Tony both silently collecting samples from around the room, 'Evidence bag,' he asks quietly, his tone shocks the inhabitants of the room, they were expecting a gruff demand, not a soft, gentle request. Ziva passes him an evidence bag and watches as he lifts it from the floor studying it, he tries to hide the way he smells it as he drops it into the bag. She sees his face as he closes the bag and sees his pain; she averts her gaze and sees the blood on the floor. It had been hidden by the shawl, 'Boss,' she calls hurrying to get a closer look.

Tony, Gibbs and McGee all turned to look at the floor, 'lights!' Tony called to one of the probies and Ziva held up the blue light, they all stare in a stunned silence at the letters fluorescing before them. 'Sean Taylor' stared back at them from the floor, 'what does it mean?' Ziva asks moving the light around to check for further words or symbols. 'It was her mother's name,' Gibbs states also staring at the floor, he spots something beside Ziva. 'Ziva, don't move, he lifts her arm up so the light falls at her feet. He looks at the smears trying to work out what they could mean.

'Oh my,' came the strangled cry from the Scotsman as he stares into the room, he lifts his hand to his hat and removes it in respect. He walks towards the bed and examines the slashes in the dress, 'Duck I need anything that can help us find her body,' Gibbs speaks quietly; Dr Mallard nods gravely and continues his inspection. 'Boss, look, are those sick-people?' Tony looks at the floor and up at Ziva, 'It's stick-people Zee-Vah,' Gibbs looks back down to where Ziva is pointing, he squints down at the marks and growls in annoyance at his poor eyesight. 'Ziva what are they?' Ziva inspects the shapes more closely, 'it looks like a woman and a girl, they have little triangles for skirts, and the smaller one has a hoop around it,' 'a hoop?' 'yeah, a loop, a whirl, a circle!' Ziva finishes triumphantly finding the correct word.

'A circle around the smaller figure, hmmm,' Gibbs frowns as he looks into space, deep in thought. 'Boss, couldn't it just be saying Sean Taylor is Jenny's mother?' Gibbs nods, 'It could, but why her mother, what is so significant about her mother?' Gibbs looks around at Ducky and falters at the expression on his face. 'Jethro!' He calls, almost dancing, a huge grin spreading over his face. The team turn to look at him as he points at the slash marks on the dress, 'look at the way the blood is spattered across the material, the blood stains start on the front of the dress and have soaked through to the back of the dress and onto the bedspread,' Gibbs nods, 'look at the shape of the stains on the three layers,' Tony leans over as Gibbs moves the dress slightly, 'they're the same,' he turns confused to Dr Mallard.

'Look at the slashes, they go through both layers of material and into the bedspread,' Ziva adds, 'What does it mean?' Gibbs stands up his face determined and turns to his team, 'It means the crime scene was staged, she might still be alive.' 'McGee, finish up in here I want all the evidence to Abby in an hour, DiNozzo, Ziva, CCTV footage from 19.00 last night until I arrived. I wanna know who came near this room and when, and I wanna know who the director was with and when they arrived in their room, anyone suspicious I wanna know about it.'

Abby spins around on her chair as she hears the doors to her lab open, 'Gibbs!' she calls throwing her arms around him, 'You look like you need a hug,' she tells him from around his shoulder. 'Abby, what did you find?' She lets go and jumps to attention typing on her computer, 'All the blood is A positive,' 'same as Jen,' Abby nods, 'the words and stick people are made with the same blood, A positive and showing the same antibodies from previous infections, traces of oestrogen and progesterone, and large amounts of neutrophils, they're like the infantry of the blood, protecting barriers and barricades,' she sees Gibbs face, 'they increase after trauma. All the blood samples from the dress and bed show varying antibodies and traces of meds, normal levels of neutrophils,' 'so the blood wasn't all Jen's.'

Abby nods grinning, 'you're good, there could be as many as six or seven individuals blood in there, also,' she grins changing the screen on her computer, 'I matched the smeared prints on the stick people and words, they all match Director Shepard's right index finger,' Gibbs nods and turns to leave, 'there's more Gibbs,' Abby's expression darkens, 'I found seminal fluids and vaginal discharge on the bed spread, DNA matches the discharge to the Director, I've had no hits with the seminal fluid yet, or a fingerprint in blood on the room phone.' 'It wasn't Jens?' 'Most of them are, it seems someone tried to stop her calling and left us more than he planned,'

A fine shaft of light penetrates the grimy windows and casts an eerie glow in the centre of the room; a foot is visible protruding from the shadows. It is shaking and deathly white, the figure is wearing only underwear and a thin dirty shirt thrown over her. Her green eyes dart around the room looking for anything that might tell her where she is or for anything that might help her escape. She shakes with the cold, curling her knees towards her chest, her thigh screaming in agony. She makes no sound and her face is defiant, she bars her teeth beneath her lips as she tries to remove the ropes binding her wrists to the iron pole on the wall. She felt the blood oozing towards her wrists and heard the faint, drip, drip, as it hits the cold floor. As her wrists fall free she brings her arms to her front and examines the wound, she pulls the shirt over her shoulders and looks around at her tiny prison. She closes her eyes and images of the hotel room blur into one, a whirl of colour and sound, screaming and blood. Had he found her message, had he understood it, would he get to her in time?


	4. Cracking the Code

Part 4

Part 4

Gibbs takes a long draught from his coffee cup and listens to the conversation Tony and Ziva are having with McGee, 'Stick people, who draws stick people when they're being attacked?' Tony asks, Gibbs imagines the face he is probably pulling as he speaks and smiles at McGee's quick response. 'Plenty of people try to leave a message if they are being attacked, obviously it must mean something to someone,' 'Er, yeah, like the boss, McGeek, I still wanna know how he knew she was in an airfield when that drug dealer kidnapped her,' he waits a few seconds debating whether to interrupt or not and decides to wait a few seconds.

'Maybe they were, you know, woo hoo,' Gibbs watches Tony thrust his hips backwards and forwards with a grin on his face as he speaks, 'in a plane and she forgot her coat,' he walks up behind Tony and slaps him around the back of the head. 'Sorry boss,' Tony runs sheepishly to the other side of Ziva grabbing the clicker. 'Whatta we got?' Gibbs asks draining the last of his coffee, he throws the cup in the bin and looks over at Tony, 'I'm not gonna say please,' Tony jumps and brings security footage from the hotel lobby onto the big screen. 'Security footage shows the Director entered the lobby at 19.15 and was joined by, this guy,' a man walked towards Jenny on the screen and placed his arm around her, 'they exchanged, erm, greetings,' Gibbs frowned at the screen as the stranger kissed Jenny and stroked her back, he was well aware the rest of his team were watching his reactions.

'They headed to the dining room at 19.19,' the camera angle changed showing a corridor from the lobby, 'and were seated at 19.25, the ordered drinks and talked, is she blushing?' Tony dives narrowly missing Gibbs swing, 'they leave at 19.45 without eating, and head towards the main lobby, they pick up a key and go to the elevator, 19.55 they enter suite 337, all the cameras show the hall is clear until 22.38, when these three appear, they knock on the door, enter quickly, at 22.49 they leave with,' he stops letting the footage do the talking.

Two men hurry from the room forcing a third forwards, something is jammed against his back, behind them Jenny is walking beside a third man, his arm around her and her face contorted with disgust. She wasn't wearing the dress but appeared to be in her underwear and a men's shirt. 'They must have threatened her, she wouldn't go like that unless they had threatened to hurt someone,' Ziva nodded, 'probably the man she was with, I'd guess they have a knife against his back, if she doesn't cooperate he gets hurt,' Gibbs glared at Tony and McGee grinned, 'let me do the honours,' he mouths and whacks Tony round the back of the head as he stares at the half dressed form of his director. 'Hey! Nobody hits DiNozzo,' he catches Gibbs eye as he preens his hair, 'except you boss of course.'

McGee takes the clicker and turns to Gibbs, 'they don't leave via the main entrance, they are picked up on several cameras in the staff areas, they leave the staff exit at 22.53 and disappear from the cameras, however a street camera on 32nd shows the SUV heading south, plates match those of the car seen outside the directors house,' Gibbs nods, 'owner?' 'SUV is owned by a Rachel Welnner, reported the car stolen three weeks ago,' Gibbs nods, 'Tony, Ziva, go talk to her,' he turns to McGee, 'the papers missing from the study, you find anything useful?' McGee types into his computer, 'I checked her bank records and for the last three years every 1st July 35,000 goes to an account in the name of Sean Taylor, every 27th July 700 goes to the same account,' 'you trace what happens to the money then?' 'The bank won't give me access to the account details without a warrant, and that's taking time,' Gibbs stares at the screen, figures, legal dragging their feet as usual.

His phone began to ring and he answered it quickly, 'Gibbs,' 'I got the face of the guy the director was with,' he clicks his phone shut and motions for McGee to follow him. They find Abby grinning like a Cheshire cat, 'I cleaned up the footage and zoomed in 250x the image was pixelated so I used my wonderful programme to interpret the dark and white spaces and came up with this,' a face popped up on screen, 'I'm running it through all the databases I could think of,' a ding makes Abby grin, if possible, even more, 'I love it when it does that,' 'Abby,' Gibbs uses his warning tone, she looks at the screen and brings up the drivers license. 'His name is Daniel Carson, 49 from West Virginia, ex-military sniper, no previous convictions, not even a parking ticket, he's cleaner than clean, whiter than white, purer than…' 'We get it Abby, he's clean,' Gibbs frowns at the blue eyes, oval face, and thin straight nose of the man in the photograph, obviously looking for a replacement Jethro he thought.

His phone begins to ring again and he pulls it from his pocket, 'Gibbs,' he growls, tired and frustrated, 'Hey Boss, Rachel Welnner says the last time she saw her car was the day she split up with her ex after catching him cheating on her with, I quote, a posh red head with a town house, ex's name is…' 'Daniel Carson,' 'yeah, how'd you…' 'he was with the director last night,' 'I wonder if the director knew he was two timing her,' 'DiNozzo,' 'sorry boss, we're on our way back.'

'Boss, still no sign of a warrant for the bank records but, I've found that there is no other trace of Sean Taylor, just this bank account,' Gibbs rolls his eyes, 'there won't be, her mother died in '98, she's using it to hide something,' Gibbs leaves the lab and heads back to the bullpen, he sits at his desk and pulls out the file of crime scene photographs. He lays them on the table and moves them around so he can see the words and picture Jenny drew in her own blood. He traces the stick people with his finger and stares into space thinking about the pictures Kelly drew when she was in kindergarten, 'mommy, daddy and me', they would say across the bottom underneath the pink and blue lines and bright red smiles.

He pictured her huge smile as she ran to him holding all the pictures she had drawn while he was away, he would hug her and sit her on his lap watching intently as she pointed herself out and Shannon in the pictures, always with sad faces, 'we were sad because you weren't here,' she would tell him. Then she would drawn him a brand new picture, all three of them with huge smiling faces, she would draw a ring around Shannon as she talked about what they had been doing, she didn't even know she was doing it.

A ring, he looked closely at the drawing, the ring was around the child, the name Sean Taylor, her mother, what was significant about her mother, mother, what about her mother, why her mothers' bank account, why the money leaving each summer, why Sean Taylor, Sean Taylor, mother, daughter, Jenny Shepard, drawing of mother and daughter, what was the link. Then it hit him.

McGee runs into the bullpen followed by Abby, both look excited, 'Boss, the warrant came through,' 'what are you waiting for?' McGee quickly begins typing. Abby leans down beside Gibbs and hugs him gently, 'we'll find her Gibbs.' 'Er boss, you might wanna take a look at this,' Gibbs turns to look at the screen McGee is staring at, 'what?' 'I've found where that 35,000 goes every year,' 'where?' He flicks the details onto the main screen, Abby's jaw drops as Gibbs stares at the screen, he was right, he had cracked the code.


	5. Revelations

Thanks everyone for reading, no one hurt me for the cliff hangers, I don't mean to do it, I just like to leave you with questions, it makes it more interesting that way.

Part 5

Tony trudges across the bullpen and leans against the desk taking deep breaths, 'Tony, Ziva, with me,' Gibbs calls grabbing his badge and gun, Tony leaps up and grabs his cap, 'where're we going?' 'You'll find out,' Tony furrows his brow as he runs into the elevator after Gibbs, 'How will I know where to drive if I don't know where I'm going?' Ziva slips between the closing doors as Gibbs throws the keys into the air, 'I'm driving.'

Tony grips the edge of his seat, his eyes wide with horror as Gibbs sped between the traffic at a ridiculous speed, and he gulps and looks over at Gibbs. 'Boss, any chance we could slow down?' 'Nope,' Gibbs replies concentrating on the road ahead, he turns onto the highway, 'Boss, where're we going,' Tony whines earning a glare from Gibbs, 'Boss, could you please tell us where we are going so that we may prepare properly,' Ziva asks politely from the backseat, Tony turns around and glares at her. Gibbs thinks for a few seconds, 'Elementary boarding school in West Virginia.'

They pull up outside the gates to the school, Gibbs winds down his window and presses the button for security, 'Name, and reason for visit,' 'NCIS, Special Agents Gibbs and DiNozzo and Officer David,' the buzzer sounds as the gates open. Gibbs drives slowly through the gates and parks outside the main doors. 'We need to talk to the headmaster,' he tells an approaching security guard showing him his badge. The security guard leads them through the main school building to an office on the third floor, 'Samuel Jameson, Headmaster, how can I help you Special Agent Gibbs?'

A man in his fifties wearing a grey suit asks, standing behind his desk, 'We need to know why Sean Taylor is paying 35,000 every summer to this school,' the man nods and pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he types at his computer and looks up, 'Sean Taylor is the mother of one of our students, a Leanna Jenny Gibbs, 3rd grader, boarding student, very bright,' Gibbs nods, exactly as he had suspected. 'Where is Leanna now?' 'According to her timetable, Math,' 'we need to take her with us,' 'what's going on, I can't let you take the child without her mother's permission,' Gibbs stares at the headmaster, 'her mother has been abducted, it is for her own safety that we need to take Leanna with us.' Samuel Jameson nods quickly, 'I'll show you to the room myself.'

Gibbs looks around at the stone walls and floor of the corridors, he'd seen a film where school looked this, a few years ago, something about wizards and a stone, he made a mental note to ask Tony what it was once this was all over. Ziva walks beside him also looking at the building, 'I feel like I'm in Hogwarts,' she mutters as several older students hurry past dressed in identical black blazers and pants with white shirts and red ties. Was that the name of the school Gibbs wonders before diverting his attention to the class now watching him eagerly.

He looks at the students and immediately knows which one is Leanna, long red hair pulled back into a pony, a smooth fringe sitting above her large blue eyes and a cheeky smile as she eagerly waited to hear what was happening, something all her class mates seemed desperate to hear too. He looks at her and speaks softly, 'Leanna?' She nods, her eyes narrowing, she tilts her head to one side and purses her lips, almost as if she recognises him, he recognised her expression, it was the one Jenny used to pull when she was studying evidence, when something was jumping out at her but she wasn't sure why.

'Leanna my name is Jethro and I work with your mom,' Leanna nods and sighs, she packs up her books and picks up her coat as Gibbs and her classmates look on confused, 'well I gotta go with you don't I?' Gibbs nods, slightly surprised by the eight-year-olds' deduction skills, she slips between the desks and bounces towards him, 'mom said,' she answers the question in his face. 'Let's go get your stuff,' she nods happily a grin spreading across her face. 'I'll show you.'

Tony and Ziva follow behind Gibbs as the little girl leads him down a corridor, 'She looks so much like Je…' The little girl stops and glares at him, her eyes wide 'like, her mother?' he finishes unsure, the little girl nods subtly and turns back around smiling knowingly, Gibbs raises an eyebrow as he looks down at her, she grins and winks, They arrive at the dorms and Gibbs turns to Ziva, 'Ziva, help her pack up her things,' Ziva opens her mouth about to protest but purses her lips and sighs, following the child into her shared bedroom.

Leanna closes the door behind them and walks slowly to the bed by the window, she is no longer smiling, Ziva follows her and helps her lift her case onto her bed. The child quietly places her cuddly toys in the suitcase, she opens a drawer and pulls out some clothes, her bottom lip trembles, 'hey, what is wrong?' She shakes her head as he looks up into the brown eyes. She starts stuffing her clothes into her case and empties the drawer quickly; she grabs clothes from the end of the wardrobe and a pair of sneakers. 'Can I change outta my uniform?' Ziva nods; still not quite sure how she was supposed to communicate with an eight year old.

Leanna grins and grabs a pair of jeans and one of her tops and runs into another room, 'I'll be two minutes,' Ziva nods and calls after her, 'What else is yours? I'll start packing,' 'the stuff in the drawers under the bed,' Ziva nods to herself and bends down to open the drawers, inside she finds books and notebooks, a drawing pad and drawing materials, a door opens behind her and she looks up, 'you like to draw?' The girl nods grinning, 'I love drawing,' she runs over and helps put her books into her case, 'we don't know when you're coming back so make sure you have all the things you might want.'

They finish packing and Leanna squeezes a stuffed white rabbit to her chest, 'shall we go?' Ziva asks her guiding her towards the door, Leanna nods biting her bottom lip. She walks miserably out of the room and looks up at Gibbs her eyes wide with fear, suddenly she jumps up and a huge grin spreads across her face.

As Gibbs guides her down the corridor and out to the car he realises she is pretending to be happy, he sees the fear in her eyes behind the shining surface. He smiles weakly at her and helps her into the car, she smiles back and settles into the seat beside Ziva. As they drive towards NCIS she looks out of the window, her smile fading and her rabbit squeezed ever more tightly to her chest. She doesn't speak at all during the journey and only nods in assent when Ziva asks her if she is okay.

Leanna stands holding her rabbit tightly in front of Gibbs desk, she looks up at him with frightened eyes and finds herself unable to hold back the tears any longer, her chin falls to her teddy as she cries and she begins to shake. Gibbs kneels down beside her and wraps his arms around her, 'Hey, it's going to be okay, don't worry,' 'no, it won't' she sobs. Tony, Ziva and McGee all look on helpless as Gibbs tries to comfort the frightened girl, 'something real bads happened hasn't it?' she chokes sliding her arms around Gibbs neck. 'What makes you think that?' 'Mom said if anything really bad happened to her Jethro would come take care of me,' she holds onto Gibbs tightly as he rubs her back gently, 'she told me to smile and play dumb till I got to NCIS,' she sniffed, 'everyone at school thinks she's called Sean, but she's not, she's the director of NCIS and that means bad men might want to hurt her, and me, I want my mommy,' she bawls into Gibbs neck, 'I won't let anyone hurt you,' Gibbs whispers into her ear, 'and I'm gonna find your mom and bring her back to you, I promise.'

Jenny pulls the knotted cotton tight with her teeth around her arm, it stings but it is better than bleeding everywhere. She licks her lips, they feel slimy and horrible in the heat, her mouth and throat are dry and her eyes are sore from the dust. She hears voices and sits silently, desperately trying to hear what they are saying. She hears a man talking, laughing, with a second, a third is trying to reason with them, 'come on, let her go, there was no need to abduct her and keep her here, and the blood and the knife, what was that all about ?' 'Punishment,' a cold voice split the air sending a tingle down Jenny's spine, 'punishment? For who?' 'Special Agent Gibbs, his team, NCIS in general, you don't screw with me and get away with it,' the room outside was silent.

Jenny listens carefully, all she can hear is heavy breathing for a while, 'what do we do with her?' 'keep her here a few more days, let her sweat, maybe even bring her daughter, Leanna,' she raised her voice, 'such a beautiful child, such a shame what has to happen when the cavalry come running to save you mommy,' Jenny slumped to the floor, her blood like ice, they cackled with laughter outside banging on the door, mocking her. Not Leanna, not her Leanna, they couldn't hurt her little girl, they could do what they wanted to her, anything as long as her little girl was safe. 'Hey Jenny, just think, bang and they're dead.'

She drops her head onto her knees, praying Jethro had gotten to her already, begging whoever might hear her silent prayers that Jethro had her daughter safe where she couldn't be hurt. 'No one said anything about killing them! What the hell is wrong with you people? What did she ever do to you?' She lifts her head and stares at the door in disbelief, it couldn't be, she knew that voice, she knew him, why was he doing this? He did ask a good question though, what the hell was going on out there and what had she done that was so bad?


	6. Shocks and Heartache

I'm going to dedicate this to aserne as she nagged me into writing more.

Please no one hate me for this.

(Once again I only own the character of Leanna, I do not own any of the others)

* * *

Part 6

Gibbs releases his grip on Leanna and she steps back sniffing, tears still trickling down her cheeks, 'We'll find your mom, do you think you can trust me?' the little girl nods tucking her red hair behind her ears, 'My mom trusts you so I trust you,' he forces back the smile playing on his lips. He stands up and takes her hand, 'there's someone I want you to meet.' She holds his hand tightly and sticks close to his side as they walk towards the elevator gaining attention as they pass agents.

The elevator doors open and Gibbs leads Leanna down the corridor to the lab, Abby jumps around grinning, 'Gibbs! How'd it go, oh,' Abby looks down at the teddy poking out from behind Gibbs, she leans sideways until she sees the large blue eyes and red hair, 'double oh,' 'Abby this is Leanna, Leanna this is Abby, don't worry about her jumping around, she does that a lot,' he adds from the side of this mouth, earning himself a small smile.

'Is she who I think she is?' Abby asked staring at Leanna, her eyes travelling over the wavy red hair pulled into a pony tail complete with a fringe and a very familiar stare developing. 'If you think she is the directors daughter, they yeah Abby, she is,' Abby nodded and pulled her oh so innocent waiting for direction face. 'Abs, do you think you could show us how you work out who people are from their finger prints?' Abby grins 'sure, you wanna have a go with my digital scanner?' She holds the device up and Leanna nods jumping forwards, 'lets do Gibbs first, pop your finger on the scanner and press down,' she points to the screen, 'now its looking through all the fingerprints to find one that matches Gibbs, aaaaand hey presto, here he is, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, wow is that really how old you are?' 'Abby!' 'Okay, so we found Gibbs, lets see what happens if we scan your finger.'

Leanna holds out her finger and Abby presses it onto the scanner bed, 'So my name will come up now?' 'Only if you've committed a crime, and I doubt that, or' the machine dinged and Abby turned to look at the screen, 'your mom had you added to the system as a baby. Very clever.' 'She is; what if you didn't have our fingerprints Abs? What then?' Gibbs asks her seriously, Leanna nods her eyes wide with intrigue.

Abby smiles seeing where Gibbs is heading, 'then we look for DNA it's a special code that is totally unique to you, everyone has their own special code, open up Gibbs,' she lunges forward with a swab and sticks it into Gibbs mouth and rubs around his cheeks and tongue. 'There we go, and Leanna,' she opened her mouth wide and Abby swabbed her mouth. 'I'll use my friends to analyse these and hopefully in a couple of hours I'll know who you both are.'

Leanna nods, she looks up at Gibbs with her eyes wide, the picture of innocence, 'Where am I gonna stay till you find mommy?' Gibbs strokes her hair gently, 'tonight you're gonna stay here, then if you need to you're gonna stay with me.' She nods and leans into him, 'come on, let's get you settled in upstairs.' He leads Leanna towards the door and turns his head back to Abby, he gives her a meaningful look and then looks at the swab samples, she nods showing her understanding. She points at her eye then makes a phone gesture with her hand and finally, points at Gibbs then the screen. He nods and mouths 'thank you' to her before leaving the room with Leanna.

Gibbs led Leanna back to the elevator, 'we just need to take a quick detour downstairs, there's someone else I want you to meet,' Leanna nodded and skipped beside him stretching her head to try to peer through the doors as they opened. He led the excitable Leanna down the corridor to Autopsy, he reached the door and stopped, 'I'm going to check its safe for you to come in,' he walked inside and left Leanna at the door, she looked around her before slipping between the closing doors and ducked down behind the stainless steel cabinet. 'Hey Duck,' 'Jethro, what can I do for you? I hear you have Leanna in the building,' 'Yep, just checking you didn't have a body out before I let her in,' 'oooooh dead bodies,' and a clatter made him turn around.

'ooops,' a small hand picked up the instruments from the floor and Leanna stood up behind the autopsy table, she had her hands behind her back and was pretending to whistle whilst looking up into the air. 'Are you trying to destroy my Autopsy suite young lady?' Ducky asked chuckling, She shook her head and bit her bottom lip cheekily, 'no, it was an accident,' Ducky nodded smiling whilst Jethro rolled his eyes at her, 'your inquisitive nature and Jenny's clumsiness by the looks of it, that could be a bad combination,' 'you remember Jenny's idea f stealthy, when she first joined,' Ducky nodded laughing, 'she learnt quickly though, managed to control that clumsy streak.' 'Yeah, the times I had to dig your mom out of a hole because she fell over thin air and alerted the perps to our presence,' he shook his head smiling at the memories looking over at Leanna.

'You mean my mom was clumsy?' Leanna asked incredulously her attention falling on the shear like tool used to cut through the rib cage of cadavers, 'ooooh,' she picked them up and snapped them together. Gibbs jumped behind her and took them from her, 'past experience tells me that's not a good idea, if I send you back to your mom missing a finger or a toe or worse a limb or an eye she'll kill me, I'd also quite like to stay in one piece and I'm sure Ducky here is also rather attached to his limbs. So we'll put that back where it came from,' he took the shears and laid them on the autopsy table watching Leanna from the corner of his eye.

Her eyes widened as she spotted the scalpel and picked that up and started making cutting motions in the air, 'Leanna I don't think that is a good idea either,' she pouted at him and put the scalpel back her eyes resting on a saw and a ladle like object which she instantly picked up again, 'what's this for?' 'Scooping out the contents of the stomach of a corpse,' Ducky answered, Jethro frowned at him giving his friend a 'don't encourage her' look.

She continued to pick up each item from the table and inspect it thoroughly before turning her attention to the rows of doors on the wall behind Ducky, 'what's in those?' 'erm, something you really shouldn't see at the tender age of eight my dear,' Ducky replied, Leanna gripped the handle of one of the doors and tried to turn it, Gibbs jumped to attention and removed her hand quickly. 'You can't look inside Leanna,' 'why?' 'because you shouldn't see it?' 'why?' 'your mom would kill me,' 'why,' 'because she wouldn't want you to see it,' 'why,' she asked again a determined expression on her face, not unfamiliar to an expression Jethro had seen many times on her mother's face.

'because,' Leanna frowned, 'that's not a real answer,' 'because I said so.' She folded her arms and pouted, 'why?' Jethro could feel his temper rising, his mind drifted back to a memorable conversation he had had with Jenny in Paris, and not memorable in a good way. 'Why Jethro, why?' His hands tensed and he turned to the little girl and saw her mother glaring at him instead, 'why can't I look?' 'because you just can't,' he snapped. 'Why,' she asked again insolently, 'I just told you why, stop asking questions,' 'why,' she glared at him and stared him in the eye as she grabbed another handle and turned it defiantly. 'I said stop asking questions!' Jethro spat wrenching her arm roughly away, 'and why do you have to touch everything, why can't you just do as you're told?' he shouted.

Leanna rubbed her arms trembling, she was frightened and ran away quickly into the corridor, she jumped into the elevator and pushed all the buttons begging the doors to close and stop the man in the corridor from reaching her. She was breathing heavily as the doors reopened, she found herself in an orange corridor and ran away from the elevator. She spotted the clear doors and pushed them open, tears running down her cheeks she threw her arms around the waist of the nice lady with black hair she had met earlier.

'Hey Leanna, what's wrong?' She asked bending down to make her head level with the child's; she wrapped her arms around the small shoulders and rubbed the shaking back. 'What happened?' she asked as small arms wrapped themselves around her shoulders, she stroked the red hair as the child sniffed into her ear. 'He hurt me,' she cried, 'who hurt you,' 'G G Gibbs and he shouted at me,' Abby held her tightly, 'I'm sure he didn't mean to,' 'yes he did, he grabbed my arm and hurt me and shouted 'why can't you just do as you're told?' I only wanted to see a dead body, that's not a bad thing is it?'

I like this kid, Abby thought to herself whilst trying to find a way to answer the child's question, 'well, no not if you're an adult and an investigator or forensic specialist or ME, but it's probably not a good idea for a little girl who is missing her mommy to look at dead people, is it?' Leanna shook her head clinging onto Abby, 'I just wanted to see them, then he got real angry,' she sniffed again, 'he's just really worried about your mom, he wants to get her home safe,' Leanna nodded, 'I want her home safe too, but I don't wanna stay with him, not now not ever, he scares me.'

'Okay, I'll see if you can stay with me instead, Ziva or Tony or Tim might have to stay with us too, but I'll try,' Leanna smiled a little and pulled back from the hug, 'thank you,' she whispered before looking at Abby's neck with great interest. 'What's that?' 'That is a tattoo,' Abby replied grinning. She heard a ding and looked up at her computer screen, 'result – match' she stood up and Leanna stretched up beside her. She clicked on the result and images jumped up onto the screen, 'oh my god, Jenny Shepard is most definitely your mother Leanna, how amazing is that,' Leanna laughed a beautiful soft laugh, 'you're silly, but I like you.'

Gibbs stood in the shadow of the doorway watching Leanna wipe away her tears and stare in awe at the lab around her, He saw the third image on the screen and the name beside the dna profile, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, positive match, he was her father. He was her father and he had caused those tears, he had made her run away in fear. His little girl had said she didn't want to stay with him, not now, not ever, those words rang around in his head making him feel sick to his stomach. Not now not ever, he scares me. He turned and left the room and headed towards the elevator, he decided he would send Ziva, Tony and McGee to Abby's to watch over Leanna. He wanted her to be safe, but most of all he wanted her to be happy and if that mean being in the care of someone else so be it.


	7. A Continuation of Events

Part 7

Part 7

Leanna was walking down the empty corridor towards the autopsy suite, it was dark and quiet, as she reached the doors she heard a creaking noise and she looked behind her. It was empty, she turned back to the doors and they opened. The lights flickered on and she walked across the room towards the rows of small doors. She reached out her hand and gripped a handle firmly, she took a deep breath and turned it slowly.

She pulled the door open and her eyes adjusted to see inside the dark space, her hands trembled as she pulled the gurney out, red hair fell out and her eyes rested upon the chalk white skin. She reached out and touched the long red hair , it was soft and silky, she ran her hands over the white cheeks and found they were cold as ice. Her lip shook and tears began to roll down her cheeks as she looked at the pale lips and nudged the unmoving body, 'mommy, mommy get up, mommy, mommy mommy' she screamed into the silence. 'Mommy get up!' pleaded, nudging the cold neck with her hands. 'Mommy please get up,' she whispered, her face wet with tears.

Something moved behind her and she backed away from the body, she jumped as she heard a creak and a groan, 'uuuuuuuuuuu,' she heard. She stood still hardly daring to breathe, 'uuuuuuuuuuu,' there it was again. She stepped back towards the gurney and heard it again, 'uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu' but it wasn't coming from the same direction. The door to the cooler opened slowly and a hand came out, 'uuuuuuuuuuuu,' at the same time the doors to autopsy opened and a foot appeared. She screamed as a body began walking towards her, 'uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu' it's arms were out in front of it and its neck was covered in blood.

She saw its face and it looked like the old man, Ducky, it had no eyes just sockets full of blood and there was a bite mark on its neck, she screamed again and turned when she heard a banging. There was another one, this one looked like Gibbs, it's arms were outstretched and it was coming towards her, its legs dragging on the floor, leaving blood stains as it moved. She stood rooted to the spot watching as they came towards her groaning and flopping. She started to scream an arm grabbed her and turned her around, it was the man he was leaning forwards, her neck exposed….

She sat up sweating and screaming, there were people all around her, dark shapes moving in the room, one swooped down on her, 'what is it?' she whispered, 'did you see someone in here?' she shook her head. A second voice spoke to her, 'hey, it's okay, did you have a nightmare?' She nodded and hugged the woman talking to her, she realised it must be Abby and clung onto her for dear life, 'mommy was lying all still shut behind a metal door, she was all cold and she wouldn't get up, she wouldn't get up, she wouldn't get up, and then the old man and Gibbs came and they tried to catch me and bite me and make me into a zombie like them, and he'd got my neck and…' 'shhhh, shhh, it's okay, it was just a dream, just a bad dream.'

Abby sat on the floor amongst the pile of blankets and pillows hugging Leanna, Ziva was stood by the door replacing her gun in its holster. She had managed to persuade Gibbs that Leanna would be safe with just her and that he did not need to drag McGee and Tony into babysitting duty. They had however appeared on Abby's doorstep with enough pizza, ice cream and movies to keep Leanna entertained for half the night. Who ever thought it would be a smart idea to let her watch zombie movies rated 18 was going to be in serious trouble when she got her hands on him.

'It's okay, it was just a dream,' Abby muttered holding the little red head in her arms, 'what if mommy can't come home, what if she gets hurt,' Abby desperately wanted to tell her Jenny would be fine but it wouldn't be fair, she had every faith in Gibbs but Kate's death had told her not everything can be fixed. 'Gibbs is gonna find your mom and he's gonna do his best to bring her back to you,' Leanna nodded, 'what about Danny Is he looking for my mom too?' 'Who is Danny?' Ziva asked bending down and sitting beside Leanna.

Leanna wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve and sniffed before looking around at Ziva, 'Her boyfriend,' Abby and Ziva caught each other's eye and then looked back at Leanna. 'Danny?' 'Yeah, every time she was on the phone it was Danny this and Danny that and then if she was moody it was Daniel,' 'did you ever meet him?' Leanna nodded, 'yeah he came round loads, he stayed overnight loads too,' 'did you like him?' Abby asked her. She nodded, 'yeah, he was nice, he read to me and he played scrabble with us, and mommy smiled lots when he was around.' 'Did your mom ever mention what he did?' Leanna thought a moment, screwing up her face in thought, she slowly shook her head then more forcefully, 'no, she didn't.'

Abby was intrigued by the new information and decided to broach another sensitive subject. 'Did your mom ever talk about your dad?' 'When I did something he would do, she'd tell me I was just like him, sometimes she'd smile and other times she'd get mad and get upset, she'd shout, and then I'd hear her crying and I'd go into her room to hug her.'

She picked up her fluffy rabbit and held it to her, 'she called my daddy a bastard, She said daddy had another girlfriend when he told mommy he loved her. Then mommy found out about me and she wanted daddy to choose between her and the other lady, he wouldn't choose so she left him and had me on her own. She says she hates him a lot, then other times, like when she says she loves my eyes I think she liked him really but he really really upset her.'

Jenny looked up as she heard the screech of metal on metal, she held her hands behind her back pretending she was still tied up, as the door opened slowly. She swallowed nervously watching as a beam of light spread into the room, there were footsteps and a groaning before someone was thrown into the room beside her. 'What do you want from me?' She shouted at the silhouette in the doorway, 'Me? I don't want anything,' he replied, she didn't recognise his voice but noted the accent.

'Why am I here?' The door was closing, 'Because my boss wants you here,' 'who's your boss?' she asked her eyes darting up and down the figure closing the door, he ignored her and turned back into the room, he rolled the groaning figure over and raised his gun. He turned it around and threw the but of the gun into the man's face, 'arghh,' he groaned blood shining in the dull glow. Jenny recognised the face as he tossed about in the light, 'Danny?' she asked quietly, 'Danny is that you?' 'Yeah,' he spoke thickly, Jenny guessed his nose was broken.

'What does your boss want with us?' She shouted as the door closed, she heard a laugh outside, 'what dos our boss want with you? We're not privy to those kinds of details Jenny, we're just following orders,' a second voice answered, she recognised that voice, 'What does that mean, following orders? Whose orders?' More laughing, 'goodnight Jenny,' she heard footsteps on concrete fading into the silence.

She crawled over to the groaning figure on the floor, 'Danny, Danny are you okay,' he pushed himself around so he was facing her, 'yeah, yeah I'm okay,' she looked over him in the moonlight and saw his clothes were bloodied and a gash on his cheek, 'they hurt you, did they tell you what they wanted?' 'No, not after the hotel, they slashed me to stop me protecting you; they didn't tell me what they wanted.'

'Did they tell you who they are working for?' He nodded, it wasn't completely true, they didn't tell him but he knew who they were working for. He knew he couldn't lie to anyone else, 'they mentioned le grenouille,' he watched the emotions flicker over her face, shock, wonder, fear, then she spoke, 'he's dead, what has le grenouille got to do with this and why would they want us?' He slipped his arm around her and placed a tender bloodied kiss on her cheek, 'they didn't say,' but I know exactly why they want you.


	8. Chapter 8

Part 8

Part 8

Gibbs walked into the bullpen armed with four cups of coffee and a bottle of tropical fruit juice, 'DiNozzo, David, McGee, anything new?' All three jumped up, 'yeah boss, Abby called, she's got something,' Gibbs nodded and headed towards the back elevator, he past the stairs and stopped, he turned back to the others, 'well, you waiting for an invitation or somethin'? The others jumped up quickly and followed him into the elevator. The doors opened and they raced down the corridor to Abby's lab.

Abby was jumping up and down in front of her computer, and Leanna was watching her giggling, she stopped suddenly when she saw Gibbs and positioned herself as far away from him as possible. He placed a caf-pow down on the table before Abby and set the bottle of fruit juice beside it. 'Gibbs, I've been running the DNA on the semen we found on the bedspread at the hotel,' 'and?' 'and, I got a match,' 'who?' 'well, its not quite who it is, more what else they left behind, one of the blood samples had identical DNA, the splatter pattern of the blood indicates it was most likely caused by a slashing motion, this guy the director slept with in the hotel he got hurt too Gibbs,' Gibbs frowned at her, 'so he might not have been involved?' McGee interjected, 'or he might have got hurt trying to force Jenny to cooperate, we got nothing useful,' Gibbs turned to leave and the others followed him, 'Gibbs I'm not done,' 'what Abby,' 'I found that a second sample of blood, also splattered across the crime scene shares the same mitochondrial DNA as the owner of our mystery semen and blood, I also found the owner was male too.'

She grinned triumphantly, 'Abby bottom line,' Tony looked on intrigued and squinted at Abby as she spoke, 'mitochondrial DNA is passed from the mother to her children, all siblings from the same mother have the same mitochondrial DNA , it also works for cousins if their mom's are sisters as they would all share the same mitochondrial DNA from the maternal grandmother, so,' she continued seeing the look on Gibbs face, 'the director and Daniel Carson were attacked by his brother, and before you ask yes I'm certain, I compared the DNA and the percentage match indicates brothers, rather than cousins,' Gibbs turned to McGee, 'find the brother McGee.'

McGee jumped onto Abby's computer and ran several searches, as he typed a window popped up flashing on screen, 'we got a hit on the BOLO boss, car's been spotted abandoned outside a warehouse,' 'address?' 'right here boss,' he scribbled it down and passed it to Gibbs as he jumped up. Gibbs slipped the paper into his pocket, 'Good work Abby, McGee with me, DiNozzo, Ziva, car,' he stopped and looked at Leanna, who was now glaring at him. 'I'm sorry Leanna, I never meant to hurt you or scare you. I know there's no excuse for taking my temper out on you, I'm just worried about your mom and I didn't want you to get hurt too,' he watched Leanna for some sign of recognition and got a slight not of the head before she jerked it towards the door, 'go find evidence so you can find my mom.' He nodded and turned to Abby, 'make sure she behaves herself, can you work on finding the brother for me,' he stated rather than asked but Abby nodded all the same. 'Sure,' Gibbs smiled and hurried from the room to join the rest of his team outside.

They pulled up on the lonely street and pulled out their weapons, slowly they made their way towards the car, 'clear,' Ziva called pointing her gun at the passenger seat window, 'clear,' McGee and Tony both confirmed, Ziva looked around the doors and windows and pulled on the door handle. She flicked the lever for the boot and Gibbs opened it quickly, 'clear,' he finished, 'Tony, dust for prints, Ziva fluids, McGee photo's,' he ordered and himself began looking around the outside of the vehicle for any sign of the driver or passengers.

'Gibbs, we have blood,' Ziva called as she sealed a swab in an evidence bag, 'we've also got prints on the door handle for the backseat passenger side,' Tony added as he made notes on his sketch. Gibbs spotted something shining in the long grass and pulled on his gloves, he pulled the blades of grass apart and turned to McGee, 'McGee number and photo, and evidence bag,' McGee ran over with his camera and started to take photo's before passing Gibbs an evidence bag.

Gibbs picked up the knife, he slipped it inside the evidence bag and examined it through the plastic, 'there are fibre's on the blade boss,' McGee stated, 'could be the knife used to slash the director's dress, it looks like blood on the blade and handle too,' he added quietly. 'Let's get this back to Abby asap for tests, in the meantime, I want the team in the bullpen going over all the evidence with a fine toothcomb.'

'Right, no ransom demands, no contact of any kind from the kidnappers,' McGee summarised as Gibbs entered the bullpen. 'Okay let's go over what we do know.' McGee picked up his clicker and the team assembled in front of the plasma screen, 'from the beginning,' Gibbs jumped in before anyone else could speak.

Tony nodded and took over, 'the director and her partner had dinner at the Hashnav Hotel, they were kidnapped from their room later that night, at some point between dinner and leaving with the kidnappers the director had sexual intercourse with an unknown man we presume to be Daniel Carson her boyfriend, Leanna confirmed they had been seeing each other. The same man left his blood in the bedroom, the director had time to leave a message in her own blood on the floor. A second blood sample belongs to the unknown's brother.' 'So Daniel Carson's brother kidnapped the director and his brother, so far we have no motive, and Abby is searching for the brother.'

'Abby has found the brother,' the four turned to look at Abby holding Leanna's hand tightly, 'and?' 'you're not gonna like it,' she stared at the floor. 'Abby, come on,' Gibbs was starting to get worried now, 'tell me, what is it?' Abby began typing on McGee's computer, 'I searched for Daniel Carson's brother, he hasn't got a brother, he is an only child, both his parents died in a car accident ten years ago, their car was going the wrong way down an expressway, they think it was a suicide attempt by his father.'

'No wonder they got on so well, hang on, no brother, but his brother got cut, his blood was spattered up the wall,' Abby looked at the screen and bit her lip, 'I ran the DNA from the semen sample and the two blood samples through all the databases I could think of, I got a hit.' Gibbs stared at her, she swallowed nervously, 'And?' She took a deep breath and spoke quickly trying to hide the emotion in her voice.

'Simon Philips, arrested for armed robbery and smuggling weapons and drugs into the US, went off the radar eight months ago.' She stopped and looked around at the others, 'his DNA matched the single blood spatter, he has a brother, Daniel Philips, almost a clean record, he was accused of sexual assault twelve years ago, since then nothing,' the team stared at the screen.

It was Ziva who spoke first, 'the director had sex with her kidnapper?' She looked at the floor, 'we are going to assume it was not consensual yes?' 'There's more, Simon Philips is known to have been involved in activies with Le Grenouille.'

_Jenny sat with her head on Daniel's shoulder, she had her hand in his and squeezed it gently, 'I'm sorry for getting you into this,' she whispered so their captors would not hear, 'why?' 'I'm the director of a federal agency, a high value target,' he nodded slowly, 'I didn't want you to get hurt,' 'you didn't know what they were planning,' He nodded again and held her to his side, 'Jenny I want you to know I love you, what ever happens remember I love you,' she smiled and wrapped her arm around his stomach, 'I love you too,' she lifted her head to meet his lips in a tender kiss. 'If only they'd waited a few more minutes, we wouldn't have been so preoccupied with each other to notice two men entering the room.' _

_As she sat snuggled in his arms the voice that had spoken earlier reached her ears, he was shouting, it was that which caught her attention, the nastiness he injected into his voice seemingly with minimal effort. He was English, she remembered his name, some facts were coming clear whilst others were even more blurred, who was his new boss, what were they up to and what were they planning to do with her. _


	9. The Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the End

'_Come on Jenny, time to go Huevas de rana wants to see you' Jenny barely had a chance to look up before two figures swooped into the room and pulled her to her feet, she struggled against their grip and kicked out hard. Her foot made contact with something soft and she heard a loud groan and swearing as she spun around punching the face of the man behind her. Both men released their grip on her, one was clutching himself and spat on the floor, 'bitch,' she could hear the venom in his voice. _

_The second was wary of her and standing between his captive and the door, he wiped his bloodied nose with his sleeve and sneered at her. She looked to Danny for assistance, 'Danny, Danny,' he stared at the floor and covered his ears with his hands. Jenny stared at him her fight leaving her as two pairs of arms clamped around her body forcing her from the room, she was limp in her captors arms as she spoke, 'Danny?' _

_He slowly stood up and flowed them from the room; the confusion was evident in his lovers eyes as she allowed herself to be dragged along the dark, damp corridor and up the stairs. As the door opened the brilliant sunshine blinded him, he squinted until his eyes focused on the wooden pier and turquoise waters surrounding them. He spotted the yacht moored at the end of the walkway and knew what was to happen, he dragged his feet as his brother and Pierre forced Jenny on board and took her inside the cabin. _

_'Huevas de rana' was waiting for them, Jenny looked up into the face and recognised it immediately. 'What do you want with me?' She asked angrily, struggling against the men holding her wrists, 'murder is punishable by death, you committed murder and you will be punished accordingly,' was the reply, 'murder? Who am I supposed to have murdered?' Jenny snarled, 'Rene Benoit, Le Grenouille,' 'I didn't murder him, and I was cleared of all charges by the FBI,' Huevas de rana lifted a black box onto the table in front of Jenny, using gloved hands they ran their finger around the edge and opened it with a sharp click. 'Danny, come and explain to your girlfriend what you're going to do?' _

'I double checked the prints around the hotel room and one set didn't match that of the director, Simon Philips or Daniel Philips, it did however match a set all over that car,' 'who's prints Abby?' 'Pierre Francois, another known associate of Le Grenouille, there is no evidence placing anyone else in the room or the car,' McGee stared at the screen, 'so the director entered the room with Daniel Carson, they were kidnapped by Simon Philips, Daniel Philips and Pierre Francois, but only three men left with the director and we know one was Daniel Carson, it doesn't make sense.'

'Hang on McGee there's more, I matched a fibre from Noemi's clothes to a fibre found in a blood stain in the car, I positively matched the knife to the cuts on Noemi's arms,' Gibbs nodded, 'I also found this in the car,' she held up an evidence bag containing a single sheet of paper, 'it was hidden between the foam lining of the back seat and the leather cover, it says _'Anthony is the key, a pawn and a victim in the first game.'_ Tony stared at her, 'me?' Gibbs nodded 'apparently so,' he looked around the room, 'Abby where's Leanna?' 'She said she needed to use the bathroom, but that was ten minutes ago,' 'go get her.' Abby headed to the bathroom and a few seconds later ran back into the squad room frantically, 'she's not there.' Gibbs picked up his phone, 'Ducky, is Leanna with you?' 'No, I haven't seen her since she left to see you with Abigail.'

_Danny slipped the cell phone back into his pocket and waited until he saw the flash of red heading towards him. He smiled as he took the small hand in his and led the girl towards his car, 'Your mommy is waiting for you,' he said as he strapped the girl into the passenger seat, 'is she okay?' Leanna asked him, her eyes wide with concern. 'Yeah, she's okay now but she's in trouble and she needs our help. I need you to be really brave and I need you to do something for me.' _

_He took the cell phone from his pocket, 'I need you to keep this in your jacket pocket,' he hit the gas and headed away from NCIS headquarters and back towards the marina. 'I need you to do exactly what I tell you, if I say run, you run as fast as you can, can you swim?' The little girl nodded gripping the phone tightly, 'yes,' 'good, if I say jump and swim away, you swim as fast as you can, you don't look back and you don't stop.' _

'Security saw a red headed girl run through the gate and get into a dark suv outside, it drove off immediately.' Ziva reported as she hurried from the lift back to the bullpen. Gibbs phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out quickly, McGee stared at his screen 'boss, the director's cell phone has been activated,' 'I know, I just got a message from her phone.' '_'Follow the signal, don't believe everything you see, Danny, the pawn in the second game. Beware Huevas de Rana.'_ McGee trace the cell,' he barked grabbing his gun and badge. Tony stared at the screen as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, 'Abby look up Daniel Carson for me,' 'what are you thinking?' she asked as she began typing on Tony's computer. She brought up the files on Daniel Carson 'can you tell when the files were created?' 'Yeah, why?' I'd bet you any money…' he stopped as Abby's jaw dropped. 'they were created eight months ago.' 'Bring up the photo from the security footage,' Gibbs told Abby, as the image appeared on the screen beside that of Simon Philips they all stared at the screen. 'Do we have a picture of Daniel Philips?' 'No, but those two could be brothers,' 'I think Daniel Carson and Daniel Philips are one and the same.'

'What does 'Huevas de rana' mean?' Abby asked looking over at Ziva, 'it means …' 'Frogspawn?' Tony asked, 'yes, how did you know?' McGee jumped to his feet, 'Boss they're headed towards the marina,' 'let's go,' Abby stayed by the screen and called after them, 'be careful!'

McGee directed the team to a warehouse beside the marina and found the dark suv from outside NCIS, all four jumped out quickly. They could see a yacht moored in the water with four figures on board, the long vibrant red hair blowing in the wind signalled Leanna's presence and the taller figure of her mother behind her. They could hear voices arguing and caught parts of what was being said, 'murdered my father,' 'lied to me, you made him lie,' 'please don't hurt her,' 'punish you for what you've done,' 'don't hurt her,' several figures turned away and walked back inside the warehouse, leaving Jenny, Leanna and a man alone on deck.

He turned to Jenny and raised his hand, the sharp crack of a gunshot filled the air and Leanna fell to the deck. A strangled scream from Jenny echoed around them before another shot was fired, she fell backwards over the railing and into the water with a resounding splash. The man lifted Leanna up and threw her overboard before turning to walk back inside the warehouse after the rest of the group.


	10. Water Water everywhere

Hey everyone, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to review in the past. I apologise for the shocking cliffhanger in the last part but that is just me, my crue nature hehehe. This is the penultimate part guys and I hope you enjoy it.

Part 10

Gibbs, Ziva, Tony and McGee were frozen in shock for a split second before they sprang into action, Gibbs directed Tony and Ziva to take the left and for McGee to follow him to the right. 'The second we have them surrounded and disarmed I want you in the water, our first priority has to be our safety, and containing the suspects. Then we can retrieve the bodies.' McGee couldn't believe how calm his boss was right now, his daughter had just been shot and he was as cool as a cucumber. He was pretending to be calm on the outside but inside was crumbling to pieces, he had just witnessed the cold blooded murder of an eight year old girl and her mother, his boss.

He nodded and followed Gibbs down the side of the building and spotted Ziva and Tony slip behind a crate opposite them, he covered Gibbs back and took his position beside the boat. Gibbs held up three fingers and slowly brought them down, two, one, and 'NCIS freeze!' 'Federal agents drop your weapons,' 'hands in the air, drop your weapons.' 'NCIS, hands in the air,' their voices merged as they raced on deck and surprised the two assailants on board. McGee looked down at the face of the woman Ziva had wrestled to the floor and was handcuffing, 'Jeanne Benoit,' he nodded to himself, they had been right. He looked to his left and glared at the man Gibbs was stood beside with his hands cuffed behind his back, the man from security footage, Daniel Philips.

Gibbs looked around the deck and sensed something was wrong, he heard footsteps and spun around. A man was pointing a gun towards him, 'drop your gun or I'll shoot,' Gibbs glared at him, 'I would seriously reconsider that threat if I were you,' he spoke softly but with a deep menace that usually sent a shiver down McGee's spine. McGee, Tony and Ziva all pointed their weapons at the man they knew to be Andrew Philips, they heard the gun click and Gibbs dived as the trigger was pulled, five guns went off and two men fell to the ground.

Andrew Philips lay unmoving on the wet deck, his mouth wide with shock and his eyes dull and staring into nothingness. Daniel groaned and put his hand to his side; he felt warm liquid oozing from his body and tried to put pressure on his wound. Tony knelt by his side and put pressure on the wound, 'call 911,' he shouted at McGee. 'We need to keep the sob alive so we can send him down for kidnap and double homicide,' McGee nodded and removed his cell from his pocket, 'ambulance, the marina, gunshot the abdomen,' he continued to give the operator the relevant information and slowly walked to the edge of the deck, he looked down into the turquoise waters and what he saw nearly made him drop his phone.

Jenny and Leanna both very much alive struggling to tread water in the marina, Leanna was sinking and Jenny was frantically trying to keep her head above water but was sinking herself. Their heads slipped beneath the water before shooting up in a splash and gasp and sinking suddenly once more, he could hear the coughing and spluttering and the frightened cries of the little girl as she sank after her mother.

He ran from the boat and down to the walk way, he stripped off his jacket and jumped into the water, he swam out to the tangled mass of red hair and limbs and took the struggling, choking girl in his arms, 'I got you,' he held her head above the water and swam strongly back to the edge. He lifted her onto the wooden boards and calmed the shivering girl. 'Mommy!' she screamed. McGee turned to see the red hair slip beneath the surface and two hands flail around feebly before disappearing too. 'Director!' he called leaping from the walkway, before he could surface a second figure dived in before him and swam strongly downwards.

Gibbs scanned the dark water around him for a flicker of red and began to dive deeper, his young probie appeared beside him and he pointed to the right as he swam deeper to the left. He felt his lungs start to scream as he desperately scoured the water for her, his body reacted before he could help it, he surfaced quickly and gulped in the air before diving back downwards immediately. McGee surfaced around the same time and headed back down into the water to help his boss.

Gibbs dived deeper this time, straight down, he wasn't going to leave her down here, he couldn't see a thing, it was pitch black, he spun around waving his arms desperately. He dived deeper still and reached out as far as he could, his fingers brushed something soft, he swam towards it and caught handfuls of red hair, he gripped it tightly and pulled, a head followed and his lungs began to scream for air. He held onto the hair with all his might and kicked towards the surface.

He gulped as his head broke through the water and tugged Jenny's head up; McGee appeared beside him and supported some of Jenny's weight as they took her back to shore. Ziva was stood beside Leanna, trying to comfort her as McGee and Gibbs dragged Jenny's unmoving body onto the wooden plans beside them. Gibbs began CPR and McGee ran to hail the ambulance whose sirens could be heard in the distance. Leanna held onto Ziva tightly as Gibbs desperately tried to revive Jenny, tears were running down the child's cheeks as she begged her mother to breathe. 'One, two, three, four, five,' Gibbs counted before listening for breath and then breathing into Jenny's mouth. 'One, two, three, four, five,' he began to blow into Jenny's mouth again and was pushed back by Tony, 'let me take over for a round boss,' 'Mom!' Leanna cried crawling to her mother's side, 'mommy,' she began to cry as she squeezed her mother's hand tightly.

Gibbs allowed Tony to take over and he looked Leanna and Jenny up and down, 'he didn't shoot you,' he stated incredulously, Leanna shook her head as tears poured down her cheeks. 'He pretended to shoot us so we could swim away and be safe, then you could get the bad guys,' she sniffed and looked at her mother's limp body, 'but I couldn't swim and mommy couldn't keep me up,' she cried. 'Mommy pushed me up as she went down, then she couldn't get back up again, it's my fault.' Gibbs slipped his arms around his daughter and held her tightly, 'no it's not, it's not,' he looked down at Tony, the sweat was beading on his forehead as he continued the CPR, behind him two paramedics came rushing down and took over.

He stood up as the paramedics lifted Jenny onto a stretcher and continued with the CPR as they headed back to the ambulance. McGee rushed down to them and spoke quickly, 'Daniel Philips is dead,' he stated simply. Gibbs sighed, and closed his eyes, 'he pretended to shoot them in order for them to escape,' McGee swallowed and Ziva stared at the ground. 'He tried to save them, his brother knew what he did, that's why he shot him.' She stated in reply, she looked up to see the forlorn expressions of the paramedics as they put Jenny into the ambulance. 'You better go with her Gibbs, you should get Leanna checked out too, we can take care of things here.'

…

Gibbs sat with Leanna on his lap in the waiting room, all around his medical personnel were running around between the trauma rooms, he barely saw or heard anything save for the sobs of his little girl. He lifted his head at the sound of a woman rambling hysterically about Jenny and Leanna and shootings and drowning, he spotted the familiar form of Abby as she shot through the double doors between him and the emergency department. 'Gibbs!' she called rushing towards him and engulfing him in a whirl of black and red leather. 'How is she? What did they say?' She asked, her black lips trembling as he shook his head, 'nothing, she's been in there for the past forty minutes.'

Minutes later a doctor emerged form the trauma room, 'Agent Gibbs,' all three looked up at him, 'she's alive, she's unconscious and on a ventilator,' he looked down at Leanna before continuing, 'her brain was deprived of oxygen for a long period of time, until we get the results of the brain scans we won't know the full extent of the damage.' Gibbs nodded, 'can we see her,' the doctor nodded, 'I wouldn't advise allowing her daughter to see her, the whole experience could be very upsetting,' Gibbs held Leanna tightly, 'she needs to see her mother, Leanna, mommy is very poorly, she has machines to help her breathe, and lots of wires to check her heart and other organs are working, okay?' Leanna nodded, 'I wanna see mommy,' he nodded, 'okay sweetie.'

Gibbs walked into the room with Leanna in his arms, even though he knew what to expect, he was not prepared for the sight that met his eyes. Jenny, usually so full of life and passion was lying motionless on the bed. He felt Leanna's grip tighten on his shoulders, 'mommy,' she called, reaching out to touch the ghostly pale hand, 'mommy wake up,' Gibbs held her tighter, 'she can't sweetheart, she can't.' Leanna buried her face in Gibbs shoulder as he buried his in her hair, he held her tightly and cried with her.

…

Four days he sat beside her bed refusing to leave her, Leanna visited every day but couldn't understand why her mother wouldn't wake up. It broke Gibbs heart every time he saw the little face fall as she saw her mother still asleep each morning, 'mommy wake up soon, please wake up soon,' she would whisper into her ear before kissing her forehead gently. Gibbs stared out of the window remembering the good times they had together, the long walks around endless twisting roads and the candle lit dinners for two, her beautiful smile as she laughed in his arms and the way she stuck her tongue out at him. He smiled as he pictured her holding a straw hat to her head, the wind blowing around her and whipping her hair into a swirling red mass around her on the beach. He had almost lost himself in the memories when he was alerted by a gagging sound behind him.

He whipped around and saw her eyes were wide open in shock; she stared at him as she tried to lift herself up and grabbed the breathing tube down her throat. He shot the to the door and called for a doctor, he rushed to her side and calmed her before the doctors came flooding into the room, 'Jenny can you blink for me,' she did so, 'lift your thumbs for me,' she lifted both thumbs, her face red with the effort not to gag on the breathing tube, 'do you want the tube out,' she nodded vigorously and the doctor pulled on the tube. She relaxed instantly as it was removed, and an oxygen mask was placed over her nose and mouth.

She breathed deeply and relaxed back onto the bed, 'Jenny, do you know where you are?' she nodded and pulled the mask away, 'hospital,' 'do you know what year it is?' '2007,' Gibbs stared at her, 'do you remember what happened?' 'No,' 'do you know a Daniel Carson?' 'no, should I?' 'no, don't worry, just rest,' 'I, I have to call someone,' 'Leanna is okay, she's with Abby,' 'Leanna? You know about Leanna?' Gibbs nodded, 'yeah I know about our daughter.' Jenny looked away from him and stared at the curtains in her room, 'I'm sorry for not telling you,' he took his hand in hers, and squeezed it gently.

Jenny looked back at Gibbs, 'what happened to me?' 'Short version? You were kidnapped and thrown off a boat, you nearly drowned,' 'sugar coated as ever Jethro,' 'no good at sugar coating Jen, you know that, oh its also 2008.' 'What?' 'Don't panic, losing one year can't be nearly as scary as losing 15, seeing a beautiful woman at your bedside and having a very vivid memory of making love to her come floating into your mind and you have no idea who she is.' Jenny smiled, and laughed a little; 'I guess not,' Gibbs squeezed her hand tightly and stared into her eyes.

He knew how close he had come to losing her forever, life was too short for fears and regrets, he took a deep breath and began to speak, 'Jen, when you left, you broke my heart, I wanted to come after you but I didn't think you would appreciate me following you,' he stopped as she opened her mouth, 'I wanted you to follow me, I wanted to know you wouldn't give up on us so easily, I wanted you to show me I was wrong about my decision to leave, you didn't.' Gibbs shook his head, 'no I didn't, but I truly meant what I said to you in MTAC on your first day as director, I've missed you so much Jen. I nearly lost you this week, I thought I lost you three times but you came back, I, I,' 'I missed you too Jethro,' she squeezed his hand back and looked into his eyes, she saw what she had longed to see for the past two, no if it was 2008 then it was the last three years, that familiar glow, 'I love you too Jethro.'

He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it gently, he smiled at her, she had always been good at reading him, it meant he didn't have to get soppy or sentimental, she knew what he meant without saying anything at all. They stared deeply into each others eyes, lost in the moment, both had found what they thought they had lost forever; the blissful silence was broken by the doors flying open. 'Mommy!' a small figure flew across the room and threw her arms around Jenny, 'you're awake, they said you might not wake up,' Leanna lay her head beside Jenny's carefully, and Jenny wrapped her arm around her daughter, 'hey sweetheart,' 'be careful with you mom, she's delicate at the moment,' Jenny shot Gibbs a glance around Leanna, 'what? I've seen the way she runs at people; she nearly knocked Abby over the other day when she went to hug her.' Jenny laughed and rubbed Leanna's back tenderly.

Please click the little button, you know you want to.


	11. Epilogue

This is the last part of this fic, i hope you enjoyed it and all your questions have been answered.

Once again, I do not own the characters - if I did Jenny would still be alive, Gibbs would have saved her and all would live happily ever after, as it isn't ... you know

Enjoy the final part

Epilogue

Jenny closed her eyes and opened them to check she wasn't dreaming, no everything was as she had seen it. She looked at herself in the mirror and ran her fingers through the red curls framing her face; she picked up her lipstick and reapplied the rose coloured lipstick to her already perfectly made-up lips. She looked at herself in the mirror again and smiled as she spotted the delicate silver and white rose in her hair, a single tear slipped down her cheek.

She heard footsteps approaching and hastily wiped the tear away, the door swung open and Leanna bounced in wearing a pink satin dress with a matching pink rose head band nestled in her long red curls. 'What do you think?' she asked her daughter pointing to her hair and dress, 'you look beautiful mom,' two faces appeared behind her, 'stunning Jenny,' she grinned at her two friends and laughed out loud at the sight of Abby and Ziva in pink satin dresses and delicate pink sandals. 'Are you ready?' Ziva asked her, she took a final look in the mirror and nodded as she bit her bottom lip nervously.

Gibbs stood shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he stared at the floor and then up to the ceiling, 'boss,' Tony muttered, 'boss,' stop moving you're making me feel nervous,' Gibbs glared at him, 'you're nervous! You're nervous! You're not getting married for the fifth time!' Tony's eyes widened. 'Probie, why did you say he was making you nervous?' McGee opened his mouth in protest, 'me! It was you Tony,' 'shut up.' They turned to find Gibbs staring at them and glared at each other. 'Straighten your ties,' Franks snapped at them, Gibbs ferociously brushing his jacket down smooth nervously, he would never admit just how terrified he was but given the chance he'd be straight out of the door.

The door opened behind the four men and Tony and McGee turned around as they sat down, their mouths fell open at the sight before them. Gibbs stared straight ahead before slowly turning on the spot, he gasped when he saw her standing there dressed all in white. _Daring Jenny, a white dress, people will talk. _His eyes devoured the low cut chiffon knee length dress with organza overlay, he followed her red curls around her face and down onto her shoulders. He couldn't believe she had agreed to become his wife, the one woman he thought would never say yes to him, stood here before him now, it was a miracle.

Ducky smiled beside her, dressed to the nines and swelling with pride, he took her arm in his and walked her down the aisle of the small church, past the small gathering of close friends, politicians and federal heads towards his old friend. He had been overwhelmed when Jenny had first come to him to ask if he would give her away, of course he accepted immediately, he was thrilled to be giving her away, she was like a niece to him.

Leanna skipped up the aisle grinning from ear to ear, followed by Ziva and Abby, all three stopped opposite Gibbs, Tony and McGee and turned to watch Jenny walking towards them smiling but the smile didn't reach her eyes, she swallowed and a small tear formed at the corner of her eye. She stopped as she reached Gibbs, he took her hand in his, 'what's wrong?' he whispered, 'nothing,' he knew something was wrong but didn't want to push it, 'okay,' he smiled, 'let's get married.'

…

Gibbs looked around the room and couldn't see her; he wandered around looking for her in the bathroom and then headed outside. He spotted her beside the fountain looking up into the stars; he slipped an arm around her and held her close, 'now will you tell me why you're crying?' 'I'm not crying,' she muttered through the flood of tears streaming down her cheeks. 'It's nothing, just being silly.' 'They're waiting for us,' 'oh please tell me Tony hasn't got a speech planned,' Gibbs nodded his head, 'yup, and so have Franks, McGee, Ducky and for some reason Abby and Ziva.' Jenny rolled her eyes imagining what they would all say, 'let's get this over with.'

Gibbs slipped his arm around hers' and led her inside the hotel to the ballroom, decked out in black and white roses and drapes, with black and white balloons floating against the ceiling all thanks to Abby. Jenny smiled at the guests and stopped as someone patted her on the shoulder, she turned to see an elderly woman in a lemon yellow jacket and skirt with a matching hat. The woman just stared at her, there was something familiar about her, she could feel Gibbs shrinking away on the other side of her, 'Jethro,' she asked warningly turning to face him. 'Matthew! You didn't call me!'

Gibbs cringed and smiled at Jenny's amused expression, 'Matthew?' He looked around the room for help; everyone had gone silent and was watching them. He spotted Ducky holding his head in his hands and silently begged him to come over, 'I waited for you to call,' Jenny was sniggering next to him, 'Why didn't you call me?' he found himself being hit over the head with a walking stick, 'ouch.' 'Yes, Matthew, why didn't you call her?' He glared at Jenny as she smirked at him, waiting for an answer.

He thought for a second before speaking, 'It wouldn't have been fair to call you when my heart belongs to another,' he stopped for a second before adding, 'and Donald didn't give me your number,' Jenny snorted as she dragged Jethro back up to the head table where Tony was planning a whole list of 'Matthew' and Mrs Mallard jibes. Gibbs spotted the look on Tony's face and glared, 'don't even think about it,' he muttered as he passed him and took his seat. Ducky hurried over to his mother and directed her back towards her seat as she protested that she wanted to talk to Matthew, Ducky continued to remind her that he was married now.

Mike Franks sat sniggering beside Gibbs, he stood up forcing his expression back to neutral and tapped the side of his glass, 'Hello everyone, as best man its for me to start the speeches, I'll try to keep it short because I know at least five others wish to speak,' he coughed and stole a look at the four team members and Ducky listening intently to him. 'You really do have a unique way with women don't you probie? You should be ashamed, your friends' ma,' Gibbs stared at the white table cloth and hoped it would end soon. 'I gotta say, you picked right with this girl, although I can't say wearing the skirt in the relationship is a good omen, the boss at work and the boss in the bedroom, you got your work cut out Probie.'

He waited for Tony to snigger behind him and get a death stare from Gibbs before continuing, 'Probie has had more wives than hot dinners, and none of them had him pining over them like Jenny. A couple of years ago Probie came to Mexico to stay with me for a while, we spent many an afternoon talking about 'the job',' the made quotation marks as he spoke, 'how much he missed 'the job' and how he wondered if things could be different with 'the job' and what if he hadn't quit 'the job', now if ya know Probe it was obvious 'the job' was a woman. I just didn't expect it to be the little red head that interrupted my siesta; I'd have thought you'd learned your lesson with redhead's probie, too fiery, too headstrong, always wanna be in charge,' he grinned as he glanced at Jenny, 'but this one is different, she's worse. She is in charge, god help ya probie, but what ever ya do, don't let this one go, she's a good 'un.' He glanced at his friend as he stared into Jenny's eyes, 'don't it just make ya sick, come on quick, raise your glasses to the happy couple so they can go make out in private.'

Everyone raised their glasses and spoke in unison, 'the happy couple,' Ducky hopped to his feet grinning broadly at Jenny as he waited for Franks to take his seat. 'When Jenny first came to me and asked if I would do her the very special honour of giving her away today I was blown away, to be 

asked to do something so personal for someone so special to me. I've never been more proud than I was today walking her up the aisle to my very good friend Jethro.'

Gibbs watched Jenny's eyes glass over and realised this was the root of her tears, he wrapped his arm around her waist and squeezed her gently, Ducky continued to speak, 'As I prepared to walk her up the aisle I took a few moments aside to think of her father, how he would be feeling as he waited to give his only daughter away. I think he would be proud of her, head of an armed federal agency, mother to an enchanting little girl, beautiful, intelligent and utterly devoted to Jethro. Although I never knew the man I know he must have been a good man to have raised such a wonderful daughter. I know she wishes her father could be here today, to see her united with the man she loves.' He glanced at Jenny, her face wet with tears, 'I want to make a special toast, to someone very special who cannot be here today, let us drink to Jasper Shepard, father of the bride.'

Jenny stood up and hugged Ducky as everyone took to their feet and raised their glasses, 'thank you,' she whispered, 'that was beautiful,' everyone spoke in unison, 'Jasper Shepard,' 'daddy,' Jenny whispered, the tears streaming now as she took a sip of her wine. Tony stood up after Jenny and Ducky had sat down, 'wow, great speech Ducky, how am I supposed to follow that?' He grinned as he bounced on the balls of his feet dying to speak, 'the rest of the team and I wanted to say something really profound, really special, really meaningful, so we decided to let Abby do the honours,' Abby jumped to her feet and wrapped an arm around Jenny and an arm around Gibbs, 'the kids love it that mommy and daddy got married!' She squeezed their heads together and squealed a high pitched squeak. When Abby finally released them Jenny smiled at her and Gibbs just rolled his eyes, 'thanks Abs,' he muttered flattening down his hair.

When they had eaten the tables were moved and the music began to play for the first dance, Gibbs slipped an arm around Jenny's waist and took her hand in the other. His eyes met hers and together they started to move to the music, as the voice began to sing they both raised their eyebrows at each other and rolled their eyes.

Abby was bouncing up and down happily listening to the smooth silky voice of the young singer as he sang 'Can't help falling in love,' she grinned as Jenny and Gibbs moved closer and closer together so that there wasn't a gap between them. They danced as one, gliding around the dance floor having only eyes for each other, lost in their own world. 'Don't they look cute together?' Abby asked McGee, 'Ier I er I suppose so,' Abby frowned at him, 'look McGee!'

Leanna separated herself from the crowd at the end of the song and hurried over to her parents, Gibbs lifted her up into his arms and spun her around laughing. He set her down on the floor and she danced happily with her parents, twirling around between them and holding their hands tightly.

Tony, Ziva, McGee, Abby and Ducky watched on from the bar, it was the happiest they had seen Gibbs in a long time. Leanna detached herself from her parents and ran over to join the team, distracted by Leanna's chatter the team did not notice Jenny and Gibbs scouring the room before slipping through the doors and hurrying upstairs.

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